Secretary Common of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren, centre, Jonas Aqvist, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, left, and Olof Ramstrom, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry announce the winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry throughout a press convention on the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. The winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry are Caroline R. Bertozzi of the US, Morten Meldal of Denmark and Okay. Barry Sharpless of the US. (Christine Olsson /TT Information Company by way of AP)
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists from the US and Denmark have been collectively awarded this yr’s Nobel Prize in chemistry for creating a method of “snapping molecules collectively” that can be utilized to design higher medicines.
Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Okay. Barry Sharpless have been cited for his or her work on click on chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions, that are used to make most cancers medication, map DNA and create supplies which are tailor-made to a selected function.
“It’s all about snapping molecules collectively,” stated Johan Aqvist, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that introduced the winners Wednesday on the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
Sharpless, who beforehand received a Nobel Prize in 2001 and is now the fifth individual to obtain the award twice, first proposed the thought for connecting molecules utilizing chemical “buckles” across the flip of the millennium, stated Aqvist.
“The issue was to seek out good chemical buckles,” he stated. “They must react with one another simply and particularly.”
Meldal, based mostly on the College of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Sharpless, who’s affiliated with Scripps Analysis, California, independently discovered the primary such candidates that may simply snap along with one another however not with different molecules, resulting in functions within the manufacture of medicines and polymers.
Bertozzi, who relies at Stanford College in California, “took click on chemistry to a brand new stage,” the Nobel panel stated.
She discovered a approach to make click on chemistry work inside residing organisms with out disrupting them, establishing a brand new technique referred to as bioorthogonal reactions. Such reactions at the moment are used to discover cells, observe organic processes and design experimental most cancers medication that work in a extra focused trend.
Bertozzi stated she was “completely shocked” to obtain the prize.
“I’m nonetheless not totally constructive that it’s actual, however it’s getting realer by the minute,” she stated.
Final yr the prize was awarded to scientists Benjamin Listing and David W.C. MacMillan for locating an ingenious and environmentally cleaner approach to construct molecules that the Nobel panel stated is “already benefiting humankind tremendously.”
Per week of Nobel Prize bulletins kicked off Monday with Swedish scientist Svante Paabo receiving the award in medication for unlocking secrets and techniques of Neanderthal DNA that supplied key insights into our immune system.
Three scientists collectively received the prize in physics Tuesday. Frenchman Alain Side, American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger had proven that tiny particles can retain a reference to one another even when separated, a phenomenon referred to as quantum entanglement, that can be utilized for specialised computing and to encrypt info.
The awards proceed with literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will likely be introduced on Friday and the economics award on Monday.
The prizes carry a money award of 10 million Swedish kronor (practically $900,000) and will likely be handed out on Dec. 10. The cash comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, in 1895.
